_Mrs. Ballantyne enters. She is prosperous-looking and clad in warm furs, and is out of breath from ascending the stairs._ MISS MILLER: Good afternoon, Mrs. Ballantyne. MRS. BALLANTYNE (_out of breath_): Good afternoon. Oh dear, those stairs! I’m out of breath. MISS MILLER: They are trying, aren’t they? Four flights! MRS. BALLANTYNE: Oh, you oughtn’t to find them trying, at your age. Tell me, have you any idea why we’ve all been asked to come here to-day, Miss Miller? It’s not the day for our regular meeting, at all. MISS MILLER: No, I’ve got the notice for that all ready to send out as usual. This is a special meeting that Mrs. Lloyd-Evans is calling. She only sent me a note about it last night, telling me to get the room ready. MRS. BALLANTYNE: She wrote to me too, but she didn’t say what it was all about. I suppose she’ll have written to Mrs. Akers, as well. MISS MILLER: Here they are. (_Enter Mrs. Lloyd-Evans and Mrs. Akers. Mrs. Lloyd-Evans is mysterious and melancholy, and Mrs. Akers lively and full of undisguised curiosity. Both wear heavy coats, furs, etc. They shake hands with Mrs. Ballantyne, and nod and say how d’ye do to Miss Miller. Whilst they talk they loosen or take off their wraps, and place them on the pegs near the door._) MRS. LLOYD-EVANS (_to Mrs. Ballantyne_): How d’ye do. We’re all a little before our time, I think, but then as I always say, it’s better to be too early than too late. (_This she says with an air of originality._) MRS. BALLANTYNE: Of course, the minute I got your note I quite saw that something must have happened, or you wouldn’t have asked us to come out in this dreadful cold, _and_ up those awful stairs. I do think, when we’re doing the whole of this Welfare Committee business gratuitously, that they might have found us a room on the ground floor. Isn’t there any hope of getting better premises? MRS. LLOYD-EVANS: They pretend that any accommodation is difficult to find nowadays, but I should like to know why some building shouldn’t be done? What I always say is, that there wouldn’t be half this unemployment trouble, if people were given _work_. MRS. BALLANTYNE (_bored_): Yes, indeed. MRS. LLOYD-EVANS: It’s just Bolshevism, you know, all this talk of unemployment. There’s always work for those who are willing to work. Now I can’t help thinking it would put a stop to all this labour unrest, if they could only send a few of the leaders to _Russia_, to show them what Bolshevism has resulted in, there. Mrs. Ballantyne: Yes, of course. It really would be a lesson. (_She is arranging her dress, etc., as she speaks, and tidying herself at a little pocket-mirror._) MRS. AKERS (_seating herself, to Mrs. Lloyd-Evans_): Well, I’m all agog to know what’s happened. Your note was most mysterious. What’s been happening at the School? Really, the present generation is the limit--always giving trouble. It seems to have come in with bobbed hair. MRS. LLOYD-EVANS: Girls are often very artful.